Committee on the Application of Real-Time Monitoring of Offshore Oil and Gas Operations

An ad hoc committee will conduct a study to advise the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE), U.S. Department of the Interior, on the use of real-time monitoring systems (RTM) by industry and government to reduce the safety and environmental risks of offshore oil and gas operations. As part of its efforts, the committee will organize and hold a public workshop that is informed by a recently released BSEE external technical report on RTM for oil and gas operations and the preliminary findings from an internal BSEE RTM workgroup. The committee will develop the workshop agenda, select and invite speakers and discussants, and moderate the discussions. Subsequently, the committee will (1) issue an interim report summarizing the presentations and discussion at the workshop and any findings the committee draws from the event and from the BSEE technical report; and (2) hold additional meetings to develop and provide a final report with findings and recommendations on the use of RTM by the offshore oil & gas industry and BSEE that address the five issues below.

Specifically, the final report shall address:
1. The critical operations and specific parameters that should be monitored from drilling and producing facilities to manage and mitigate environmental and safety risks (e.g., to reduce the risk of well kicks, blowouts, and other sources of casualties).

2. The role that automation and the use of predictive software tools should play in RTM.

3. The role that condition-based monitoring (CBM) should play in RTM and describe how the operating equipment using CBM could be tailored to and/or used for RTM.

4. Whether RTM should be incorporated into BSEE's regulatory scheme in either a prescriptive or performance-based manner.

5. How BSEE should leverage RTM to enhance its safety enforcement program.